Blog Archives - VirWiz

How to write a blogpost simply and easily

Imagine you have good writing skills. You know words and make use of them. You can weave words making meaningful content out of them. You have hundreds of creative ideas and innovations in your head that you can word out. If you got all this with you, and some molding is all you need to learn how to write a blogpost super fast and become a blog writer.

When you have the ideas and energy you can pen your words on paper to express yourself. When you turn in to blogging and do it successfully on topics within a given subject that is appealing to you, you can place yourself as an expertise in the given subject. You can write blog posts to educate people on topics that you are passionate about and showcase your writing skills. This guide will simply take you through the path to write a successful blog post that reaches all readers.

1. Coming up with ideas before looking at how to write a blogpost

The most difficult part when you brainstorm on how to write a blogpost is generating an idea that wins. Your first blog post could be something that you are passionate about, a post you can fire away with your words. When you are all set to write your piece of work, you should always bear in your mind about your goal, the target audience and how you offer your content to them. You can simply start writing, or in other words typing when it comes to blogging, the stories or concepts that pop in to your head. Then you can pick out of them what might interest your readers and clients. If your writing is associated with clients you can always communicate with them and do the writing according to their wishes and likes.

2. Setting up your blog

Having brilliant ideas that you can type on screen is not just enough for blogging. To write blog posts, you actually need to have a blog. If you already have your own website you can set a platform to create your blog. If not, you have to start from scratch to build your own blog. Starting your own blog means you have to invest some money in to the host, the domain name, design services and writing/editing unless you do it all by yourself. You can run a cost free blog but it will limit you from using a domain name and you will have ads on your page. A low budget blog will require around 100 dollars to set up everything. As your blog grows you can afford your cost by selling ads and affiliate marketing.

3. How to write a blogpost by creating an outline

Once you’ve hit the topic and what you want write about it, you need to make an outline on how you present your key points in your post. This is quite similar to organizing an essay with an introduction, a boy and a conclusion, with the conclusion a little different from that of an essay, known as call for action. This usually includes inviting the reader to leave a comment, make a purchase or lead them to the next post.

You can present your content in the blog in several nice ways that meets the reader. They can be a post on how to do something, list based blogs which covers a list with related entries, news articles that links to trending news on the internet with the blogger’s ideas with it, review posts on venues, food, movies, sports etc., personal blog posts describing the writer’s own experiences or image based posts including many images with context.

So imagine you want to list out 10 movies of the same genre that has something in common like the time of their release or actors involved in the projects. You can make a list of these movies and write a small description about each one with a still shot of it explaining why the reader must watch give it a try. You’ll find various blog posts like this example mentioned here for you to get an idea on how to do it.

4. Get your reader hooked and scrolling

The most important point to fulfill in any kind of writing is to make sure that your reader reads it to the end. Let it be a book, newspaper article, journal the writer must present their writing to keep the reader hooked on to it driven by their curiosity. Your paragraphs or lists or presented content should be organized in a way that grabs the reader’s attention making sure they read till the end.

This can be achieved by many ways and the way you can achieve it precisely, differs on the type of audience and the subject that you are covering with your blog post. The best method of hooking a reader on to a post is presenting a startling fact that raises their curiosity. Using the same example on movies, you can highlight a surprising fact like a certain genre movies that flopped despite having an ensemble cast. Movie fans who have already watched all of this will want to know more.

Another way to hook your readers is to address some of their pain points. You can write about the same movies that flopped but had some great actors who couldn’t save the show. Mentioning the effort and talent of actors who might turn out to be their favourites, will be the catch.

One more thing to consider always when writing blog posts is you put yourself in the reader’s shoes and contemplate; do they understand what I write? Hitting the right target audience with a captivating topic is not enough. What you write must be understood by your reader, always.

You can make your post more interesting by adding pictures and graphics that adds colour and ambience to your post. This also helps in giving the readers some breaks during the reading process and keep their interest on the piece of writing.

5. Editing and proof reading

Once you have finished your work, you must go through it once or several times to see if its crowded with words, feels awkward at places and if it makes complete sense to an outsider. Also you need to check your spelling and grammar to see if everything is ok, because you know that the internet is filled with spelling and grammar police who would take the slightest notice in the simplest mistake and discredit your work.

6. Optimizing for SEO

Once you are proud of the piece you have written, you no longer have to worry about how to write a blogpost. The next step is to go beyond and have your masterpiece viewed by readers. SEO is all about how you have your content seen by visitors who search for the type of content you have just written. We will discuss more about how this can be done in a future article.

How to schedule an email to be sent later on Gmail and 7 Reasons when you need to do so

Blog, Tech Hacks / By Niloufer Perera

Gmail has many awesome features built-in that are life-savers for busy moms who are juggle one or many side hustles. Scheduling emails on gmail to send on a later date is one of them.

What is Email scheduling

When sending out emails, the usual practice is to hit the send button the moment we finish typing the email message. Whilst this could be the right thing to do in most cases, there are many instances when sending that same email at a later time that is the more appropriate date and time for that message to go out, is the best thing to do.

Therefore, emails that are scheduled to be sent may be sent a few minutes, hours, days or even months later than expected. It is important to note that the time zone in which you plan your emails will determine when they are sent.

7 Reasons as to why should you schedule emails

There are many reasons as to why you you should schedule emails. Below are just 7 reasons as to why rescheduling and sending emails later could be the best thing to do.

1. When it is the smart thing to do

Well this is a situation that applies only in some situations where you may juggle multiple roles or work with multiple clients and you group your work around similar tasks across the multiple roles or clients in different time-zones. You would want to send out emails to the respective clients or recipients to match their time-zone. This will make it seems like you are working alongside with them and help build better rapport.

For example, if you are in an Asian time zone and work for a client in the US, your active hours would be their mid night hours. It is therefore best that you schedule your emails or replies to reach them during their work hours.

2. Email scheduling will keep you in your client’s good books.

As explained in the previous point, when working with clients in different time zones, it’s critical to schedule emails. A message sent at 7 p.m. your time, could reach the recipient in the middle of the night. It’s far better to plan your emails for several time zones than to set your clock to an obscene hour. This will help you be on top of your clients’ inboxes if you wish to communicate with them and will make you definitely stand out from the rest.

3. Send emails at the most suitable time to your clients

Aside from timezone concerns, determining the best time to send is always a smart idea. Messages sent on Friday night are more likely to be lost, forgotten, or disregarded, whereas sending an email at 8 a.m. on Monday makes you appear more busy. Determine when the recipient is most likely to check his mail or will be grateful for the message. Schedule your emails based on the information you’ve gathered.

4. Email scheduling help you better organize yourself.

When you don’t schedule emails, you may be inclined to reply the email at a later time especially if it is a weekend evening or so. This tendency might make you forget replying to the email altogether. You might also not want to show the recipient that you reply to it right away as there may be a tendency for you to be misused or for many reasons. There’s no shame in being thoughtful this way or absent-minded at the same time. scheduling emails by attending to the matter right away but defining when the recipient receives the email, beat both of these and keep you on top of your tasks.

5. Email scheduling helps you with Time Management

Don’t want to miss out on the birthday of your client, or some other anniversary that’s important to them – or to you? Setting up scheduled emails will keep you out of trouble. Scheduled allows you to auto send, but can also remind you of the message you set up. Reminders will give you the chance to add something topical as the big day arrives. After all, it’s that personal touch that does the trick.

6. Send all of your months greetings in a single hour or less

How cool it is to send a personalized greeting to all your family, friends, colleagues and clients. A personalized, well thought-out greeting would be so much more appreciated than the ones that are auto alerted and sent to from social media platforms.

You could set an hour or half every month on a selected day to send out all of the greetings for the following month. I use birthdayalarm to keep track of all dates and it does not fail to give me timely prior reminders too. You could use a single template for a quick customized and schedule emails accordingly.

7. Increase your efficiency by grouping your work by tasks with email scheduling

Especially when you juggle multiple roles and tasks, having multiple tasks to deal with is a norm. Email scheduling helps you group your work by tasks. For instance, if you choose to do backlinking at a set time of the week, you could craft all respective emails but set the time to suit each recipient. This method can be applied to many instances and keep you super organized and efficient.

How do you schedule emails in Gmail

So how do you do this? Simply compose your email and instead of hitting send, click on the schedule feature right next to the send button and pick the date and time of your choice. Awesome!

email scheduling — Image credit: Hubspot

10 Ways To Choose The Right Virtual Assistant For Your Business

Blog / By virwiz_admin

When deciding on How To Choose A Virtual Assistant, the background administrative processes and systems you use in your business are essential to its success. When you understand how important they are in your business, it makes sense that you’ll want to hire the right Virtual Assistant as outsourcing those tasks is the sensible way forward. You will need someone who’s specialised in those areas, if you want the partnership to run smoothly and get the most from it.

However, the person you hire is also going to be working closely with you, so it pays to choose the right Virtual Assistant for you, too. They’re also going to be creating and managing systems that are both fundamental, private and sensitive to your business – so how can you ensure you choose the right VA for your business and for you?

Here’s 10 tips to help you choose the right Virtual Assistant – one who will be of benefit to your business, but also someone who you’ll be happy to work alongside.

Tip #1: Decide on what you’re hiring a VA to do

Start by getting clear on the tasks and priorities you have, as well as the responsibilities and timescales you want a Virtual Assistant to take on. This will help you get clear on what tasks you’re going to outsource, as well as narrow down your potential selection of suitable Virtual Assistants.

Tip #2: Find a Virtual Assistant that has experience of your niche

This isn’t crucial, but it is a nice to have. Someone who knows your niche will also know the nuances of it, as well as any technical aspects and technology that may be involved.

Tip #3: The right Virtual Assistant for your business is one who can meet your needs

You do, however, want to hire a Virtual Assistant who has experience with the types of tasks you want them to fulfil. This will help ensure you can quickly get them established within your business and you will know they’re competent and able to fulfil the tasks to a high standard.

Tip #4: The same ethics and personality as you

You’re going to want a Virtual Assistant who not only cares about the job they’re doing. But also cares about your business. Often, this means they’ll need to have the same ethics and beliefs as you – and someone who feels (and acts) as enthusiastic about your success as you do.

Tip #5: Proactive or reactive?

When it comes to personality, there are two distinctly different types of Virtual Assistant role. The proactive Virtual Assistant and the reactive one.

You need to decide which type of Virtual Assistant you’re looking to hire. Do you want someone who’s going to take an active role in your business and come up with suggestions and ideas – or would you rather have someone who just completes the tasks you hand over, to the specifications you want?

Tip #6: Decide if location is a factor for you

This isn’t always a factor, when choosing the right Virtual Assistant for your business, but it will play a part in your decision. Do you need a native-speaker, someone in your own time zone or someone who’s going to be carrying out a lot of written content for you.

Tip #7: Get referrals and testimonials

It’s always better to get a VA that’s been recommended to you personally by someone. Having a strong track record is something you want a Virtual Assistant to have, so if you can’t get a personal recommendation, make sure you opt for a Virtual Assistant who has checkable client testimonials.

Tip #8: Have a face-to-face meeting

You don’t necessarily have to meet up in person. However, have a video call with your potential Virtual Assistant at least, so you can actually see them. It’s harder to hide reactions etc when you’re able to read their facial expressions!

Tip #9: Choose a VA that you actually get on with

The relationship you have with your Virtual Assistant is hopefully going to be a long term one. You’re going to be working closely together, so it’s important that you get along. If in doubt, take advantage of an extended trial period, to make sure you’re making the right choice.

Tip #10: Are they within your budget

Your budget shouldn’t be your overriding deciding factor. Many business owners will underestimate how much it costs to hire a VA, especially if they’ve never hired one before. You can always go cheaper if you need to – but bear in mind that you’re looking for the right VA for you, not the cheapest one you can find.

The person you hire is going to have to work closely with you. Therefore, you need to ensure you’re hiring a Virtual Assistant who is up for the task and someone you can work with.

By following these 10 tips you’ll know that you’ve narrowed down your selection and chosen the right Virtual Assistant for your business – and someone who’s right for you too!

If you’re ready to work with a Virtual Assistant who can help your business grow, support you whilst you are growing, and help you get more work done, why not get in touch? Head on over to our Contact page, where you can either send us a message or request a callback. Let’s talk, and see if Virtual Wizard is a good fit for you!

This article was originally published in virtualhand.co.uk

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Virtual Assistants: What They Do & How to Hire (2020 Update)

Blog / By virwiz_admin

Are you looking to hire a virtual assistant?

In this article, we will talk about everything you need to know about virtual assistants – what they do, how to hire, what tasks you can outsource to them, how much they cost, how to manage and more.

Or are you thinking of becoming a virtual assistant yourself? We’ve got that covered too!

What does a virtual assistant do?

A virtual assistant provides various services to entrepreneurs or businesses from a remote location. From digital marketing tasks, scheduling appointments and managing events to personal errands. You can make a virtual assistant do almost anything.

In this article we will talk about all the above topics in detail.

Here’s what we’ll cover. Use the links below to jump to the section of your choice.————————————————–

Let’s get started!

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What Is A Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant is a person who provides various services to entrepreneurs or businesses from a remote location.

There are a host of things that virtual assistants can do, including:

Social media management
Event management
Managing calendars, appointments and emails
Preparing reports
Personal tasks like booking hotels and restaurants
Simple digital marketing tasks

It’s a never ending list!

In fact (pardon the pun here) they can do virtually anything.

Think of them as what Jarvis is to Iron Man.

They’re not there in person – but they’re still a vital part of your business.

If you’re curious about all the different tasks they can do, we’ve outlined 98 tasks that you can outsource to VAs.

We’re not going to go over each of those here, but we’ll touch upon the main ones later.

But why do you need a VA in the first place?
— Go back to outline —

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Why You Need A Virtual Assistant – 3 Great Reasons

Virtual assistants are everywhere these days. More and more people are turning to them and it looks like they’re here to stay. Here’s why you should hire one yourself.

1. Better Use of Your Employees

Say a mid-level or senior-level employee had to choose between these two options:

Playing an active role in spearheading growth strategies
Preparing routine reports on a daily basis

What would they choose?

Chances are, they’d opt for option #1.

Why?

It’s more interesting and seems more important.

But that doesn’t mean you can neglect these mundane tasks like emails and finances. Your business would crumble without this boring repetitive work.

So how do you keep your in-house team happy but still get the mundane tasks done?

With virtual assistants.

They can take up most of these mundane tasks that can be done remotely.

The result?

A full-time employee (especially those you are more senior or talented) can stay focused on more pressing matters that need to be done in-person at your office.

2. Reduced Costs

One of the main reasons why entrepreneurs and businesses outsource work is that it costs less.

Saving Salary Cost

Instead of hiring a full-time employee for a small job, you could choose to outsource it to someone at an hourly rate.

Lower pay isn’t the only way you can save money with virtual professionals though.

Saving Training Cost

A business owner can also save a lot when it comes to training costs.

Usually, companies have to train their in-house team on tasks and duties after they’ve cleared the hiring process.

All this costs time and money – that most companies can’t afford.

With VAs though, small business owners can hire professionals who already experts in their field.

This way, a business owner doesn’t have to waste time and money training them – they can get started right away.

3. Saves Time

Another reason why small business owners turn to VAs is that it saves them a LOT of time.

We all know that time is money – especially in business.

For example, let’s say you are a small business with no HR team.

Your employees shouldn’t spend hours posting job advertisements, doing preliminary resume screening, organizing an interview process – all on a hiring process for someone at entry-level position.

Why not skip all this and get a professional to work on specific tasks instead?

With virtual assistants, this is what you’ll get:

You’ll have verified experts that you can hire in no time
They’re time savers as you don’t have to waste time training them
As they can stay focused only on tasks you’ve hired them for, they’ll get the work done quicker than someone juggling multiple demands

It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

This article was first published on https://biz30.timedoctor.com/what-does-a-virtual-assistant-do/